Bosnia erupts in feuding over new census data

Bosnian officials released the long awaited census results Thursday, which show the country’s demographics are 50.1% Muslim, 30.8% Serb and 15.4% Croat. The Muslim population increased by 6.6 percent and now has a majority. Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, is refusing to recognize the results on the grounds that the census included many Muslims and Croats who fled the country during the Bosnian War and now live abroad. The census figures, which are Bosnia’s first since 1991, are expected to set off a feud because powers within the Bosnian government are divided along ethnic lines. RFE/RL also notes that the census reveals Bosnia’s overall population has declined 20 percent since before the war, and most individuals within the three main ethnic groups are now identifying as religious, whereas they did not before the war.